Australian Bauxite kicks off two rig drilling program at Taralga bauxite project

Australian Bauxite (ASX: ABZ) has commenced its 2011 drilling campaign at the Taralga bauxite project, with two drill rigs accelerating exploration.

Drilling is aiming to define a JORC resource at Taralga which is located near Goulburn, southern NSW.

New ore-bodies discovered at Taralga in late 2010 are to be fast tracked.

A Second drill rig has been commissioned to expand drilling across three states.

Tasmania, Binjour in central Queensland and Guyra in northern NSW are on schedule for drilling in late Summer and Autumn.

Laboratory work is progressing well with results from the last phase of 2010 drilling in Tasmania and Binjour pending.

The bauxite deposits have remained dry but access in Queensland and Tasmania was temporarily restricted by highway closures due to flooding in low lying areas.

On 6 December 2010 the bauxite resources at Taralga doubled to 12 million tonnes following first-pass drilling.

More than half of the resources are easily mined Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) grade bauxite suitable for direct shipping to customers that require gibbsite-rich bauxite, which is the premium quality bauxite that is in highest demand globally.